“You can’t go out there,” Pockets hissed as he caught up with her by the fire escape: she was remarkebly fast for a girl. “The guard’ll kill you. There’s a reason the lights go out.”

Juliet’s eyes flitted back and forth within her head as if they were shouting at each other in an internal conflict. “But… I have to save them. It could be any time…”

As Juliet’s mind whizzed around in direction’s she’d never experienced, Sandy watched Romeo get into the brute’s car from her perch on the six-storey roof. He was exactly as Juliet had described him, eyes glinting in the dawn sun. Every part of her wanted to scream out the dangers, to warn him that that’s Varden and that he was bad news. This part of town, everyone knew that Varden was wrong, and more than that, that he could get away with it. It’s not the police that rule the Undercity – it’s the steam gangs and the contract killers.

Romeo smiled blissfully unaware and Sandy’s heart shook. “Poor Juliet,” she whispered into the dead air.